Sense of Evil - Kay Hooper [100]
Half the folders on the conference table spewed their contents into the air.
When the rain of paper and photographs had ended, Hollis found herself sitting in the middle of a mess.
Alone.
Ginny came into the room a moment later, looking around in surprise. “Hey, it looks like somebody lost her temper.”
“Yes,” Hollis said. “Somebody did.”
“Okay,” Paige said, “getting creeped out here.”
Isabel and Rafe looked at each other, then stopped holding hands.
Paige reached up to smooth down her hair, and they could all hear the crackle. “Jesus,” she muttered. “I'm going to have to write a detailed report on this one. It's the first time that my ability to tap into other psychics' abilities actually manifested itself physically.”
“Some psychic abilities do manifest themselves physically,” Isabel reminded her.
“Yeah, but not many. I know your visions do that. Have you had one of those, by the way?”
“Not since I've been in Hastings.”
“I wonder if you could now.”
“I don't know. I assume not, since the visions are just another aspect of the clairvoyance.”
“And both are boxed up inside a shield that might as well be Fort Knox.”
“You're serious? It's that tough?”
“And then some. Bishop had me test his and Miranda's shield once, and it hit about eight or nine on our scale. Of course, we don't know how consistent that sort of ability is; it may vary widely according to the circumstances—i.e., why the shield is being used by the psychic at that particular moment. When we did the test, they weren't especially motivated or feeling driven to protect themselves. If they had been . . . who knows?”
It was Rafe who said, “So if the reasons were powerful enough, or the—the psychic desperate enough to protect himself or herself from some perceived attack, then the shield would be even stronger than . . . normal.” He felt odd just using the word—hell, any of these words. But Paige was nodding, again matter-of-factly.
“The human mind has a hundred ways to protect itself, and it'll use whatever it can whenever it has to. Fear creates energy, just like any other strong emotion does, just like psychic ability itself does. A psychic's mind virtually always uses that extra energy for some kind of wall or shield.”
“Except for Isabel.”
Isabel shrugged. “We've never been able to figure out why my abilities won't shield themselves.”
Rafe looked at her oddly. “No?”
“No.” She frowned at him. “Why are you looking at me like that?”
“No reason.” But when he looked back at Paige, he lifted his brows slightly.
“Even those of us with extra senses can be incredibly blind to some things,” she said. “Keep doing that, by the way. It's working.”
Isabel looked from one to the other of them, baffled. “What's he doing?”
“Reaching through his shield.”
“He is?”
“I am?”
Paige nodded. “I'm sure you'll both figure it out. Problem is, there's this killer, which doesn't give you a whole hell of a lot of time in which to do it.”
“Any advice?” Isabel asked wryly.
“Yeah. Hurry.”
Hollis propped her elbows on the table and pressed her fingers against her eyes. “God, I'm tired. What time is it, anyway?”
“Nearly nine,” Isabel told her. “I was ready to call it a day hours ago.”
Rafe looked at her but didn't say anything, just as he hadn't said much since they'd left Paige at the motel. Isabel had filled the silence—and possibly tried to distract him—by briefly discussing Ginny's situation, a matter Rafe was kicking himself for having completely missed and one he wasn't at all sure how to handle.
Oh, yeah, he was psychic. Sure he was.
In any case, Isabel had offered a few suggestions, and Rafe was more than ready to accept her counsel and approve her plan. He just wished she was as forthcoming with advice regarding this peculiar new ability he supposedly had.
Hell, she hadn't even mentioned it since they'd left the motel, and that bothered him more than he wanted to admit. He knew Isabel was dealing with issues of her own at the moment, and he knew he was a complication in her life. He was even reasonably sure that the simplest thing he could do would